The Toyota Corolla Altis stands to see some updates in Thailand this year in an effort to keep up with the very hot-selling Honda Civic there. 

Despite being newer than the Civic, the Altis isn't doing very well in the Land of Smiles. In November 2020, Honda shifted 2,046 units of the Civic - almost triple what Toyota managed to do with the Altis (702 units) in the same period. 

Year-to-date, Honda sold 17,581 units of the Civic there, giving it a 61.4% market share. Toyota comes in second with 8,151 (28.5% market share) Corolla Altis sold. And recall that unlike Toyota, Honda doesn't sell their Civic for taxi fleet duty - making these figures all the more impressive.

In an effort to recoup the top spot, sources say Toyota is updating the TNGA-based C-segment sedan there. Some improvements that are bound to find their way on the Altis include a refreshed instrument cluster, head-up display (HUD), expanded offering of the Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) suite of ADAS to more variants, and possible styling refinements on the GR Sport variant. 

Are these updates coming to Malaysia?

To put it succinctly - these changes are not expected for Malaysia. Why? Simple, our cars already have the full TSS suite and any further updates to the model will increase the price due to the car's fully-imported (CBU Thailand) status. 

If prices are further increased, it'll drive an even larger wedge between it and the Civic in Malaysia which certainly won't help with sales figures. For the record, here's how their prices stack up here:

The Malaysian-specs Corolla Altis is powered by a 1.8-litre, naturally-aspirated four-cylinder mill pushing 139 PS/173 Nm, paired to a CVT. It has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, a healthy safety suite, and we daresay best-in-class comfort.

Further in Toyota news closer to home, we can expect these new models to reach here in 2021 - including the hotly-awaited Corolla Cross.